Grateful . . . ?

Listen to this podcast here:  https://www.pastorwoman.net/podcast/episode/31276f59/grateful

Apprehending this one thing . . . 

  will change your life.

It will change your relationships, your health and wellness, your personality and satisfaction in life.  

But first, I want to ask you to be honest with yourself for a moment:

>Are you pleasant to be around?

>Do you like your perspective on things?

>Are you a glass full or glass empty kind o' person? 'twill be dependent on your

thinking

Will you pray with me?

         Search us, O God, and know our hearts

         Try us and know our thoughts1

                  Look inside and help us to do the same.

                  Show us if there is something we can change ... Amen.

Friend, you can revolutionize your thinking by letting this one thing color it all.  I mean, there is a lot of talk about CHOICE today, right? So, let's choose to be thankful!

Thanksgiving Day is almost here... why not get a jump on it?  

Ah . . . gratitude.  Gratitude is good and good for you, it seems!  

But while gratitude is good, maybe even great, we will see that it falls short. 

In a published study in Psychology Today, gratitude opens the door to more relationships, improves physical health, improves psychological health, enhances empathy and reduces aggression, and get this--grateful people sleep better!  Gratitude improves self-esteem and increases mental strength.2

Being grateful is good, but being thankful is even better.

'You know why?  Being thankful is directed toward a person.  And when thinking of the many reasons I have to be thankful, I think of the One who gives all ~ God.  When I stop to think about how grateful I am for life, for instance, it leads me to the Source of life . . . it also gives right perspective of my humble place before God.

Looking to the scriptures, we find thankfulness gets the most mentions in Psalms-because of its sheer size.  Second to Psalms is the letter called Colossians written by Paul, who penned these thoughts with which I am quite smitten! "And now, just as you accepted Christ Jesus as your Lord, you must continue to follow him.  Let your roots grow down into him, and let your lives be built on him. Then your faith will grow strong in the truth you were taught, and you will overflow with thankfulness.3

Let's overflow with thankfulness--what do you say?

Let's be people who think often throughout the day ~ of the people and things

  for which we have to be so very grateful.

Let's give God 'thanks', not stopping at being merely grateful.

After all, God said, "giving thanks is a sacrifice 

                                    that truly honors me."4

Here's what I've noticed:  when I thank God for his goodness to me,

                  naming things in my life, one by one - taking stock as I go, 

                         I am a whole lot less likely to think of what I lack,

                              what I do not have ... or to compare myself or my lot

                                    to others.  

Let's make a daily resolve of giving thanks to God. Let's choose a new outlook, one of thankfulness, which will surely color all we think and say and do. What do you say?

a song~ "Grateful" . . . http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XO7Dbd9mKvo

Staying ever mindful, thankful to my Lord~

Christine

 PastorWoman.net

1 - Psalm 139.23

2 - Psychology Today, Amy Morin

3 - Colossians 2.6-7

4 - Psalm 50.23a